


Kai/Max ficlets

by Stariceling



Category: Beyblade
Genre: Alternate Universe, Ficlet Collection, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-14
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2017-12-06 04:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/731339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stariceling/pseuds/Stariceling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A place to collect Kai/Max and Max/Kai ficlets and drabbles that don't fit anywhere else, especially since I have extra scenes that don't fit anywhere in Heat of a Frozen Infatuation. Mostly fluff, some UST.</p><p>1: Kai is just watching the clouds, but then comes a sweet distraction.<br/>2: Even when they're together, Kai knows he's put an invisible line between them.<br/>3: AU: Max and Kai's first meeting in an alternate universe.<br/>4: Boarding school AU scraps with goodnight kisses.<br/>5: Max and Kai care for each other + forehead kisses.<br/>6: Prompt: one character playing with the other's hair. Kai attempts to comfort Max.<br/>7: Kai attempts to distract Max with a kiss. It works better than planned.<br/>8: A kiss on the hand: where Max enjoys giving playful kisses and Kai is preoccupied with Max's smile.<br/>9: Magic school AU, birthday fic for Kai.<br/>10: Max is a ghost who shows up one day, claiming to be Kai's guardian angel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Clouds

The sun wasn’t setting yet, but it was low enough to stain colors across the clouds in the early evening sky. Pale yellow and grey near the horizon, while directly overhead they remained pure white against the pale blue of the sky. Kai simply took in the sight of them, stretched out in wispy lines like the lightest rippling of waves.

The shouts and laughter from the concrete area above carried down to where he lay on the grassy slope, not quite loud enough to irritate him. There was just one voice he was listening to, picking it out of the crowd with the ease of long habit. He filled his ears with only that laugh, the words that coaxed others on, prompting them to shout back and join it in laughter. A moment without the voice made Kai strain his ears for it, more and more of his attention being pulled in that direction.

Then the voice was far closer at hand, calling his name, and Kai looked over to see Max had come down to stand directly over him.

“I brought you something!” Max announced, his cheerful voice directed at Kai at last.

Something was ice cream from the vendor in the park, and Kai accepted it because Max’s fingers brushed over his when he handed it over. He accepted it when Max sat beside him in the grass to eat his own ice cream.

“Are you just looking at the clouds?” Max wanted to know.

Kai nodded silently, licking at the places where his ice cream was melting and threatening to drip down his fingers. Max had chosen vanilla for him. Plain and simple sweetness, and Kai wouldn’t let himself read into that.

Max leaned back on one elbow to cloud-watch too, but Kai wasn’t looking at clouds anymore. He was looking at the smudge of chocolate on Max’s lip. He was looking at the curve of his throat and the way Max’s hair stirred with a light breeze.

“They almost look like waves, don’t they? You know, like the little lines of foam on low waves.” Max glanced over at him as if to ask, ‘is that weird?’ Kai gave him a stiff nod of agreement, and got a smooth smile in return.

For a moment Max was quiet, licking at his ice cream. Kai let his gaze run over Max’s body, though he’d told himself he wouldn’t do that anymore. He’d also told himself he wouldn’t move to where Max was teaching kids beyblading in the park and fill his ears with that voice while it wasn’t directed at him. That hadn’t exactly worked either.

“Don’t you want your ice cream?” Max asked after a moment.

No. He wanted wipe the chocolate stain from Max’s lip. He wanted to lick it away. He wanted to roll over and pin Max against the grass, to blot out the view of the sky so that Max’s eyes would stay on him.

A body at rest would stay at rest and Kai knew it was the same for him. If he set himself in motion, he didn’t know when or where he would stop.

“Did I get the wrong flavor?”

Kai returned to licking at his ice cream. There was a part of him that wanted to imagine each lick swiping across untouchable skin, but it was too cold and too yielding to ever fit what he imagined.

The uncertain look in Max’s eyes still wanted approval, so Kai gave it.

“I like sweet things.”

“Really?” Max beamed. What he would do with that information, Kai had a vague idea. It seemed promising enough that he would allow it.

His treat finished, Max flopped back to lie in the grass. That innocent grin of his said he was too happy at such a small thing to notice that the hunger twisting in Kai’s stomach had to do with another kind of sweet thing entirely. He never noticed, and Kai could live with that. He had been living with it the whole time.

Max lay beside him in companionable silence. He was close enough to touch, always close enough to touch, and yet as untouchable as a cloud.


	2. Yours and Mine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a stand-alone scene I wrote while working on HoaFI, but it doesn't really fit in anywhere and I wanted to share.

There was a invisible line bisecting the bed from headboard to foot. The line that declared, ‘this is mine and that is yours.’ This pillow, this share of the blankets, this half of the mattress were all Kai’s while nothing on the other side was for him to touch.

The other half belonged to Max. Max, the friendly personal space invader, who was surprisingly good at keeping to his side.

Kai watched Max dozing softly on his side, head resting on his pillow, snuggled under his share of the blankets. The invisible line between them might as well have been a wall when he put his fingers right at the edge. He had put the line there, and over time it had somehow grown into a solid barrier.

This is mine and that is yours, so you are not mine and I am not yours. That was what he had decided.

Max seemed to sense Kai’s stress because he cracked his sleepy blue eyes open. His fingers stretched out to brush against Kai’s, right along the invisible line. The touch was question and answer all in one, and in a moment their hands were clasped together, right in the middle.

If they moved a little closer towards the center, towards each other, it wasn’t unwelcome.

As Max dropped back into a deeper, contented sleep, Kai closed his eyes to the little space between them. He went peacefully into the hands of sleep, for a brief moment content with his place in the world.

You are not mine and I am not yours, but this is ours.


	3. Battle Island AU: First Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this AU idea poking at me (er... kinda Duelist Kingdom with beyblades, I guess. Never said it was a good idea), but I really don't have time for another big Beyblade project right now, so I was hoping if I just wrote the scene that kept bugging me I could get it to leave me alone. This would be probably Max and Kai's first meeting. I'm used to writing season 2 Kai, not complete beginning of the series Kai.

“Ow,” Max said, almost conversationally. He hadn’t even winced, so Kai didn’t take his hand away from the other boy’s ankle.

“Does it actually hurt, or are you just saying that?”

Max gave him a sheepish smile, as if to say he was more embarrassed than hurt. “It’s a little uncomfortable,” he allowed. “But I couldn’t sit back and do nothing with those guys ganging up on you!”

Kai favored him with a withering look, only to be met with innocently wide eyes that said they didn’t believe he could possibly be irritated. What kind of rescuer tripped over his own feet and twisted his ankle? Besides, “I didn’t need your help. I told them they could take me on together since I didn’t have time to waste on them.”

Maybe Max’s interference had made the battle a little easier, if only for the distraction, but he hadn’t needed it. He certainly didn’t need the kid to leave with the thought that Kai was indebted in any way, which was why he’d made Max stop limping around so he could check that ankle as an equally useless return favor.

“Oh.” Max seemed to consider this for about half a second before he broke Kai’s concentration once again by laughing. “That tickles!”

His toes curled against Kai’s wrist, and Kai jerked his hand away.

“Anyway, I think I’ll be okay,” Max decided optimistically, putting his foot out and wiggling his toes before he pulled his sock and shoe back on.

Kai knew better. He had seen the bruising already starting to show on Max’s ankle. He would bet that would only get worse in the next few hours.

Standing, looking down on Max as he retied his shoelaces, Kai had already formed his opinions. Bright-eyed, cheerful, and eager, even if this kid did have a few moves he wouldn’t survive long here.

“Hey,” Max started as he rose to his feet. He seemed to have formed his own opinion. “You’re pretty cool.”

Kai stiffened, looking away. He decided on the spot that he didn’t like Max smiling at him so cheerfully, but still he decided to do something kind for Max.

“I’ll defeat you right now, so you can go home and rest.”

He had expected shock, maybe wounded feelings. The last thing he expected was the bright glow of Max’s enthusiasm, obviously eager for a match.


	4. Dormitory Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason I was fiddling around with ideas for a boarding school AU. It's not going to go anywhere since I don't have an actual plot. Basically I just wanted to write goodnight kisses. (I also want to write cute friendshippy things but I can't seem to get the setting/timing right without some plot-shaped thing to pin it on idk.)
> 
> I guess it's more material than usual to dump here as a ficlet but I'm not sure what else to do with these scattered pieces I have.

Max wasn’t exactly looking forward to the whole boarding school experience. He wanted to be at home. He didn’t care how long the train ride out here was, or if he had to keep going to his old school. He could have figured it out if it meant staying with his mom. He understood her reasoning, but it still felt like he was being punished.

Obviously the best way to combat his gloom was to meet as many people as possible and make a few friends.

He’d overheard from the dorm manager that he wasn’t the only one transferring in today, so he zeroed in on the one boy hanging around outside the dorm who wasn’t wearing a school uniform. After all, he would need a new friend too.

His target was probably a year or two older than him, definitely several inches taller, and very muscular. He had dark blue, almost black, hair with bushy, silvery bangs. Max thought he’d be handsome if he smiled, but at the moment his face was definitely unfriendly. He had a cool air around him, making him seem untouchable. That didn’t make him unapproachable to Max.

“Hi! You’re Kai, right?”

“Who wants to know?”

“My name’s Max. I’m new here too! I heard we were going to be roommates, so I wanted to meet you.” Max grinned, trying to prompt a smile from Kai. It didn’t work.

“Hm,” was all he got out of Kai.

Max didn’t mind if Kai wasn’t talkative. He offered his hand. “I’m looking forward to hanging out with you. I hope we can be friends.”

Kai just looked at his hand, then turned and walked away with a low, “That won’t be necessary. Even if we are sharing a room.”

So their first impression hadn’t gone over so well, but maybe Kai just wasn’t a people person. Max found his way up to his new room to check it out before he brought his stuff up.

When he got to the end of the hall where he had been assigned he found two other boys apparently moving in. Or possibly moving out. They were transferring things from one room to the one across the hall. One had messy, dark blue hair in a short ponytail and was wearing a red jacket over his uniform. The other had golden eyes and black hair that went down almost to his feet, wrapped neatly in white cloth.

“Hey!” the first boy greeted him. “Are you Max or Kai?”

“I’m Max. Um. . .”

“I’m Tyson. Pleased to meet you, even if I have to move all my stuff now.” Tyson stuck his hand out and Max happily shook it. Even the complaint was good-natured.

“I’m Ray,” the boy with the long hair offered. “I’ll be your new roommate.” He jerked his thumb at the room they had been moving things out of.

“I thought I was going to be with the other new guy,” Max said as he shook Ray’s hand too. Not that he wasn’t eager to make friends with these two.

“We have this mentor system, although it’s basically just that they won’t put you with someone from your grade. I guess they decided at the last minute you guys needed someone to look after you and show you around.”

“I think they just jumped at the chance to split us up,” Tyson muttered. “Anyway, what happened to you?”

Max reached up to touch his black eye self-consciously. It wasn’t tender anymore, and he had forgotten about it until it was brought up again. He went with the short version. “This creep was harassing one of the freshmen and I told him to cut it out. So he hit me and I hit him back and we both got suspended.” And his dad had wanted to know if his grades were slipping because he was being bullied and then his mom had freaked out and the next thing he knew he was being yanked out of public school.

Tyson thumped his shoulder in a bracing you-did-good kind of way, which was not a response Max had gotten yet. “So we should see the other guy, huh?”

“I’m going to let you think that.”

Tyson burst out laughing, which made Max smile as well. (Later Ray would offer that he would take the whole ‘mentor’ thing seriously, if Max ever needed his help. That was another reaction Max hadn’t expected.)

“Okay, let’s get me moved out so you can get moved in,” Tyson told them.

Max was glad to pitch in and help as they tried to untangle the mess of where Tyson’s things had gotten in the small room. When Kai finally caught up he stood a few steps back from their moving frenzy, arms crossed as he surveyed them.

“You shoulda shook on it, Kai,” Max told him. “You totally jinxed it!”

* * *

Max was hanging out in Tyson’s room, theoretically doing homework but mostly just chatting, when Kai came in half-soaked and dripping with irritation.

Without giving them more than a glance, Kai stalked over to his closet and abruptly pulled his shirt over his head.

Max’s brain stalled. He was well aware that Kai was gorgeous. He knew he was attracted to Kai and he was okay with that. But then Kai did something like that and all his brain had room for was shoulders that belonged on a Greek god. Kai started toweling off his hair and Max was captivated by the play of muscle with the simple task.

Tyson was shaking with silent laughter, and finally pulled himself together enough to blurt out, “You’re so red! Oh my god, Kai, you’re embarrassing Max!”

“Shut up, Tyson!” If Max’s face wasn’t red before it definitely was now. Sheer embarrassment unfroze Max to grab Tyson’s pillow and smack him with it, as if he could stop the laughter before Kai heard.

There was an impromptu wrestling match as he tried to muffle Tyson with the pillow. He couldn’t exactly bring himself to smother his friend. Especially not after he looked up to find Kai had turned around to see what was going on.

That was a little too distracting. Tyson tackled him and shoved the pillow in his face instead. “Don’t look, Maxie! You’re too innocent!”

Kai had pulled on a fresh shirt by the time Max got out from under Tyson. Tyson collapsed next to him in a fit of laughter while he peeked over at Kai again. Kai was looking at him and it made his heart pound nervously.

“I didn’t know you were such a pervert, Kai! You just strip when I have guests over?”

Kai gave them a vague shrug to indicate he didn’t care if he had an audience.

“Don’t use the north entrance today,” he told Max, which made no sense but Max gave him a weak thumbs up anyway.

Their eyes met and just for a second Max’s heart went ‘zing.’ Sexy shoulders and chest and abs and all was one thing. That look Kai gave him, the little hint of smile that was amused instead of bitter or sarcastic, that was gorgeous. That was the moment his little crush hit way too deep and he didn’t care if Kai was laughing at him he just wanted to see a smile.

Kai left him quietly collapsing into mush. Tyson at least had the tact to wait until Kai closed the door to start teasing him again.

“You didn’t tell me you were crushing on Kai.”

“Um. . . I guess.”

Tyson elbowed him, “Oh I _guess_ you wanna come over more often.”

“Ty, stop that! Don’t tell him.”

“If he can’t figure it out on his own I’m not gonna tell him.”

Max shoved Tyson off the bed, and followed by leaning over the edge to tell him, “You’re a good friend.”

When Max got back to his room he found his own roommate half-dressed and damp as well. His hair was even loose down his back, which Max almost never saw. Not that Ray wasn’t attractive, but it wasn’t the same brain-overload-priorities-rearranged moment. 

“What happened to you?”

“Some idiots are camped out with water balloons near the north entrance.”

“Oh yeah, Kai warned me. I think.” Max couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face as he realized that.

Ray looked over at him, but didn’t comment on the dopey smile. “He didn’t warn me. Guess he likes you best.”

Max was perfectly happy to take that as an explanation.

* * *

Kai was the first one to announce he was going back. Max wasn’t going to give him a hard time. He was still happy they had gotten Kai to come out in the first place. Then Kai looked at him and instead of goodbye said, “Don’t you have an earlier check-in time?”

Max checked his watch and belatedly realized he had to leave right that minute if he wanted to catch the train back.

“Wait a sec and I’ll walk you,” Tyson offered.

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t get lost,” Kai told them before Max could say he really needed to not get in trouble again. “Come on.”

“See you guys in a bit!” Max called, already turning to follow Kai. “Thanks for reminding me.”

Kai shrugged slightly but didn’t say anything. Max didn’t know if that was ‘no problem’ or ‘it’s not my problem’ or what. He still couldn’t tell if Kai was intentionally being nice to him. 

They just managed to squeeze onto the train. Max ended up crammed between a lanky college student who smelled like smoke and an older man who was wheezing from running to catch the train. Then Kai shoved in next to him, and he felt a hard push on his side, and suddenly he was crammed between the window and Kai instead.

Now Max felt like he was the one breathing conspicuously loudly. Kai’s arm was braced beside him and he didn’t think he could have moved if he wanted to. Kai was shielding him from the press of bodies in the car, although there was so little room it meant Kai was almost pressing him against the window instead.

“It’s too bad you’re not my mentor. You’re good at it too,” Max said, not sure if he was even heard.

Kai shielded him through the entire ride. He didn’t say anything about it, except for a few times when someone collided with his back and forced out a soft grunt. He refused to be moved.

When they got to their station Max grabbed for Kai’s arm, not wanting to be separated in the crowd pushing out onto the platform. Kai acted like he hadn’t even noticed and kept walking with Max hanging on him, as if this was an everyday occurrence.

He let go again when they made it out to the street and there was room for the crowd to disperse somewhat. Max found his brain now had space for things other than Kai looming protectively, and wondering if Kai would fall into him so they would be squished flat against the window together.

“We have time to grab food, right? Come on.”

With his brain working the first logical priority was that the cafeteria would be closed this late, and he was hungry. Max dragged Kai into the nearest fast food place for takeout.

Kai went without complaint, but as they were leaving he caught Max by the wrist and pulled him to walk faster.

They made it with three minutes to spare on Max’s curfew, with Max out of breath but practically bouncing with joy. He followed Kai upstairs to their rooms, and when Kai turned away to unlock his door Max just had to push his luck.

“I thought you were walking me home,” Max teased.

Kai looked towards Max’s room, about two feet away, then looked at Max. He didn’t have to say anything.

“I have dinner,” Max reminded him, holding up the bag of takeout.

He honestly did not expect that to work, but Kai did actually ‘walk him home’ up to the door, and accept the invitation to come inside and eat.

They didn’t manage much conversation over dinner. Kai didn’t seem to want to talk, and Max was hungry and already happy just to have Kai there.

It was a comfortable silence, Max realized. Sometimes it really felt like Kai was angry or snubbing him, but right now it felt like Kai had decided to accept his company and was happy with it, even if he wasn’t saying so.

When Max was on the verge of saying that Kai could stay and hang out if he wanted to, Kai had to go and nip that in the bud by saying, “Tyson and Ray will be back soon,” as if that meant he didn’t have to keep Max company anymore.

Max smiled whole-heartedly even as Kai got up to leave. The time he got to spend with Kai was already wonderful, even if he wanted more.

“I had a great time with you today. Do you want a goodnight kiss?” Max offered teasingly.

Kai stopped in the doorway and turned, face impassive. “Sure.”

If he was calling Max’s bluff it was a bad move. Max seized the chance, but at the last second changed direction and touched a kiss to Kai’s cheek instead of his lips. Kai accepted the kiss without a twitch or a complaint, and Max started to think he hadn’t been joking at all.

“Do you want one too?”

Max nodded so enthusiastically Kai needed to put one hand under his chin to stop him. Then Kai leaned in and Max felt the brush of dry lips against his cheek.

“Goodnight.”

Kai crossed the hall and let himself into his own room without another word.

* * *

Every time Kai walked him home there would be two goodnight kisses, one he gave Kai and one Kai gave him. They didn’t talk about it outside of that. Max wasn’t sure how to bring it up. He didn’t think they were dating officially, but then there were goodnight kisses.

The most he talked about it was to mention to Tyson that he really liked it when Kai walked him home. Tyson already understood about his crush and thought the whole thing was hilarious, but he let Max have that little private time with Kai if it made him happy.

It made him feel tense and excited, those few, soft kisses that Kai gave him. They were delivered slowly and deliberately, as if Kai considered each kiss he pressed to Max’s face to be very important.

“Goodnight?” Max asked. He had squeaked trying to say it the second time Kai walked him home. It haven’t felt like an intelligible question, but Kai knew what he wanted. Now, as usual, he turned towards Max and waited for his kiss.

For the first time Max didn’t shy away to kiss Kai’s cheek, but touched his lips softly to Kai’s and let them linger there for a moment.

Kai took a step back when Max broke contact. He’d never stepped back from a kiss before. Max leaned after him. He didn’t want Kai to decide he didn’t want to kiss anymore or that it counted for both or anything like that.

Then Kai moved forward again and pressed a kiss just beside his left eye. Max hadn’t realized that was a sensitive place until Kai touched him, or maybe it was only that he was so aware of Kai’s warm lips brushing his skin.

“Goodnight,” Kai said against his ear. It was a closing bracket to Max’s hopeful request, as if everything they did in the short span of time between the two only existed there.

* * *

“I want more than two kisses,” Max blurted out.

He was past freaking out that Kai was going to turn around and leave or tell him he wasn’t going to get any more kisses ever. He was sure Kai liked him enough to enjoy the time they spent together, including the goodnight kisses, even if he didn’t say it.

“How many to you want?”

“Twenty.” Max didn’t know where the number came from. He wanted two hundred kisses. He wanted infinite kisses. Then again ten times more might already be pushing his luck.

“I’ll give you seven. One for each week we’ve been here.”

Max could go with seven. At least that was an increase. He nodded and stepped forward, waiting a moment to see if Kai wanted to go first. When he didn’t Max pressed his lips against Kai’s, lingering as long as he could and moving his lips against Kai to encourage him.

They separated just enough for there to be a distinct difference when Kai kissed him back in return. His kiss was still chaste, but firm enough to make Max want to melt.

Max reached up to stroke Kai’s hair, only to have his hand caught. Kai pulled his hand away and turned to press a kiss to the inside of Max’s wrist. He didn’t pull away at first, so his lips brushed subtly down the inside of Max’s arm. He planted his next kiss at the crease of Max’s elbow.

Just that little bit of attention had Max out of breath even before Kai leaned closer again. The hand that wasn’t still holding his captive touched under his chin to prompt him to hold still, and then Kai left another kiss on the sensitive spot under his ear.

Kai moved again to touch a peck to the corner of Max’s mouth, which was enough to coax a faint noise out of him. Then Kai’s lips were pressed against his once again, warm and firm, only parting at the very last moment as Kai was pulling away again.

“That’s seven.”

Suddenly that felt deeply unfair. Max wanted more. “So it’s my turn to give you seven,” he suggested, leaning forward.

Kai’s hand covered his mouth. “No cheating.”

He hoped Kai appreciated the self control it took not to kiss his fingers.

“So next time it’ll be eight?” Max suggested helpfully.

“Next time,” Kai agreed.

Meaning they had officially confirmed there would be a next time. Max was so happy he pounced on Kai and hugged him.

“Hugs are free, right?” he teased, although he was prepared to find the answer was ‘no.’

He was not prepared to feel Kai hug him back. It was a close, firm hug. It made him want to melt into Kai and never let go.

“Just one,” Kai told him.

Max was happy with that, as long as Kai held on for a little while longer.


	5. Showing Care

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fic for shadow-in-the-light on tumblr from the nonsexual intimacy prompt meme!  
> Prompts: Caring for each other while ill and Forehead or cheek kisses.

“You have a fever,” Max announced. His fingers were cool where they rested against Kai’s forehead.

Kai didn’t have energy to put up with anything beyond his planned schedule, which did not include Max’s fussing. He kept his back straight, arms crossed, tense against the impulse to shiver. How could he have a fever? He’d had chills since he woke up.

“I’m not sick,” he told Max. Again.

“I think you’re supposed to use the back of your hand,” Kenny commented. The rest of the team had each asked if Kai was sick once and then stopped pestering him. Max was persistent.

“Hm. . .” Max studied Kai, who silently stared him down. Instead of arguing, Max pushed Kai’s bangs up off of his forehead and leaned in to touch his forehead against Kai’s, startling him too much to protest. “You’re definitely hot. I’m going to get you some orange juice.”

“Don’t bother.”

While Kai did give in and drink the juice, he refused to ‘rest’ and slack off. It was one of the precious few days with no travel and no other distractions.

At noon Kai had no appetite. He ached all over. He just wanted to rest so he could get through the afternoon.

“Come on, Kai. Feed a cold and starve a fever, right? I think that’s what it was. Anyway, you need to eat something.”

Max hadn’t tried to get between Kai and his training, but he still wasn’t leaving Kai alone. His smile when he actually got Kai to eat was much too bright.

“Even if it’s a little cold you have to take care of yourself, right?”

“I’m not sick,” Kai reminded him. “I never get sick.” It was a sign of weakness to let himself get sick.

He wished Max would at least pretend to believe him, instead of raising a hand to check again for fever.

By the end of the day Kai felt bad enough that he was willing to admit, at least to himself, that he might actually be sick. His head ached. His body ached. His sinuses and throat and parts of himself that he was not normally aware of were either sore or stiff or both. He was worn out and generally miserable.

When Max lay a gentle hand on his arm and asked, “How are you feeling?” Kai didn’t want to admit it.

“Leave me alone.”

“That bad, huh?”

Kai could not deal with the gentle humor in Max’s tone. He yanked his arm away from Max’s hand. “If you have energy to be a pest, apply it to your training before you fall behind.”

Max took a step back out of Kai’s space. His slight frown was more worried than hurt.

“Come on, Max, you’re just gonna catch his cold.” The others had figured out that Kai was not accepting help. If only Max would imitate them.

Max finally left him alone. Kai was free to collapse if he wanted to. He made his way back to the hotel, feeling sorry for himself and then mentally berating himself for his weakness. He refused to consider that some company, or just a distraction, might help.

It was late in the evening when Kai woke to find the hotel room dark and silent. He hadn’t been aware of falling asleep. He felt like he’d just added groggy to his previous list of symptoms without helping anything.

Someone had thrown a spare blanket over him.

Kai had a few minutes to wake up by himself. For some reason the sliver of light as someone cracked the door open made him immediately think of the right person, even though he wasn’t sharing the hotel room with Max.

“Hey. You slept through dinner. We got you some ramen, though.” Before Kai could clear his dry throat to answer, Max had given him another bottle of juice, said, “I think there’s still hot water at the coffee thing in the lobby,” and was gone again.

Kai had a few minutes to clear his head and think. He would admit he was sick. Not sick enough to stop him, but maybe enough that he needed to rest and take better care of himself. He wanted to be annoyed that Max had figured that out while he was still in denial.

He thought of the blanket and the juice and Max’s honest concern, and found he couldn’t summon any annoyance.

When Max came back with steaming instant ramen, he ate in silence. He wasn’t trying to ignore Max sitting quietly beside him, but he didn’t know what to say.

“I kept telling you I wasn’t sick.” He wasn’t pretending, but he still wasn’t entirely ready to swallow his pride and say directly that he was wrong.

“I know. But you obviously don’t feel well, and if you don’t take care of yourself you might get worse. We’re a team, Kai. We look out for each other,” Max explained, in a familiar bright tone Kai had heard many times stressing the words ‘we’re a team.’ Max put more meaning in ‘team’ than Kai ever had, although with his current team he was slowly getting there.

“Everyone else was willing to leave me alone.”

Max shrugged and stood up. “They’ll show you they love you in their way and I’ll show you I love you in my way.” He bent closer, pushing Kai’s bangs back. Kai assumed he was checking for fever again, but instead Max pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. “You look like you’ll be okay now, anyway. Make sure you get some more sleep.”

Kai had been telling everyone to leave him alone all day, and now that Max was about to leave he found he didn’t want that anymore. He didn’t know how to express, ‘I feel like crap and you make me feel better,’ or ‘I’m grateful you care about me.’

“Goodnight,” Max called back to him. “I hope you feel better.”

“Thank you.” Max looked back at him and smiled, and Kai found that did somehow make him feel a little better.

* * *

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Max told him. The vehement tone said he’d repeated those words more than once.

He had hidden himself in the back of the closet in their hotel room. He had his arms wrapped tightly around his knees, holding himself so tense that the tremors through his shoulders made it look like he was shivering.

The problem wasn’t that Max was cold, but for some reason seeing the slight tremors made Kai think of the last time Max had insisted on caring for him.

Without a word, Kai stripped the comforter off of the closest bed and brought it back to the closet. He draped it over Max and gave it a little tug to tuck it around him.

Max finally lifted his head and looked Kai in the face. His eyes were red, Kai thought more from rubbing them than from actual tears.

Kai hoped this was a shared language between them. He didn’t know the words very well himself. What he heard in his head as he brushed back Max’s bangs and touched a soft kiss to his forehead was Max saying, ‘I’ll show I love you in my way.’

Max didn’t want company, but that was a way to show that Kai cared about him.

“Kai?” Max rubbed one bloodshot eye with the heel of his hand, but he didn’t look away for more than a second. “Can you maybe stay for a while?”

There was a part of Kai that wanted to be annoyed that Max said that so easily when it was difficult for him. Maybe it was better if one of them could actually say things like that.

He sat in the closet beside Max, and let Max drape the comforter around him as well so they were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder. Max leaned subtly against him, just enough that Kai was able to feel him relax.

“Thanks.”

Kai only answered with an amused noise. There had been a time he wouldn’t have understood how company alone could make someone feel better. It was fitting that he could blame Max for that fact that he understood how comforting it was to have someone who cared.


	6. Hair petting and comfort

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by an Anon on tumblr: One character playing with the other's hair from the non-sexual intimacy prompts meme.  
> Please pardon the excuse for cuddles.
> 
> I've become really fond of writing them at a stage when they are becoming more emotionally close but are still figuring it out...

Kai was minding his own business, reading, pointedly having absolutely nothing to do with whatever unknown drama his teammates might getting up to.

For some reason Max took this as a cue to drop onto the couch right next to him, face him seriously, and say, “Kai, you don’t think I’m stupid, right?”

Max seemed to have neglected to bring in the context Kai needed to deal with this.

“Tell me I’m not stupid.”

Kai lowered his book and met Max’s gaze. He was surprised to see Max’s jaw set, his mouth stiff in an unconscious frown. Max stared unwaveringly back at him. Kai still had no idea what was going on, but Max was serious.

“You know I won’t lie for you,” he started.

Max didn’t flinch. If anything he lifted his head a little, taking in Kai’s words. Kai wasn’t sure how to put this.

“You do a lot of stupid things, to the point where you surprise me sometimes, but you’re not stupid.” After he’d said it Kai realized it would have been more diplomatic to swap those two sentiments. Max must know him better than he had expected. He had waited for Kai to get through the whole thing.

“Thanks.”

“Why are you asking?”

Max didn’t answer, but flopped on his lap as if it had taken all his energy to ask.

“Max!”

“Because I know you won’t lie for me. You’ve never lied to me.” Max tucked his face into Kai’s side and then didn’t move.

That didn’t sound right. Kai was so distracted trying to dredge up something that would prove that statement false he forgot to tell Max to get out of his lap.

“A lie by omission is still-”

“Is completely different from lying to my face,” Max interrupted. “And I trust you.”

Which explained why Max wanted his input. He knew Kai wouldn’t bother with little white lies just to spare his feelings.

That still didn’t answer what had brought this on. Kai patted Max on the head, hoping that would fix it somehow. When it didn’t he simply left his hand there.

Maybe he was a little concerned. The list of people who Max cared that deeply about what they thought of him was actually very slim. He knew if he lived up to his potential the crowd’s opinions would fall into place naturally.

As he was thinking, Kai started to idly stroke Max’s hair, like he was petting a cat. Max let out a small sigh, but didn’t protest. Max’s hair was soft and thick, making it luxurious to run his fingers through. Kai relaxed back, not analyzing what he was doing beyond enjoying the sensation of Max’s hair under his fingers.

Kai mentally went down the list of people around, both team and support, and couldn’t find a likely suspect. Max was prone to random mistakes and silly comments and heedless behavior, but teasing him about it shouldn’t turn into putting him down. None of them thought badly of him. No one who mattered thought badly of Max.

So what had him so upset? Kai wasn’t sure he wanted to dig, but at the same time he didn’t like being dragged in and not given answers.

Petting Max’s hair was meditative. Kai carded his fingers through thick, short hair over and over, until any second-hand worries fell away. His fingers brushed gently down the back of Max’s neck each time, before returning to the top of Max’s head and starting again.

Kai lost track of time. Max was looked peaceful, eyes closed and breathing slowly. He didn’t particularly want to disturb Max now. He tried to tell himself he just didn’t want to disturb the quiet. (And after Max had just expressed such a high opinion of his honesty.)

It wasn’t until his leg was starting to fall asleep that Kai was aware of how long Max had been in his lap. It would only be so long before someone had a reason to come looking for Max. Kai finally stilled his hand. He had been playing with Max’s hair long enough that his fingers and palm were tingling pleasantly.

“Mm,” Max protested in the back of his throat, the first indication that he hadn’t just fallen asleep. Eyes still squeezed shut, he sat up enough to push his head into Kai’s hand as if to ask for more attention.

Kai did not laugh. He would not encourage Max to curl up in his lap like a cat. Except he did automatically respond by rubbing Max’s head again, scratching gently at his scalp.

Max had the bad timing to finally open his eyes when he was almost nose-to-nose with Kai, making both of them start. He grinned, good humor obviously restored.

“Thanks, Kai.”

Kai gave Max an unyielding glare to say, ‘get out of my lap immediately.’ It didn’t matter how sweetly Max smiled at him. He leg was starting to go numb and he needed to move.

Max did get out Kai’s lap, but not without reaching up and giving his hair a familiar tousle. Kai chose to believe it was retaliation.

“I should bother you next time I’m feeling down,” Max announced happily. Kai found he didn’t mind that suggestion.


	7. Distraction! Kiss! and also kittens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a kiss meme prompt from tofindthesun on tumblr. "Kiss as a distraction"
> 
> I have been wanting to write older Kai and Max and especially domestic/curtain fic so that suddenly happened. XD Established relationship with affection and fluff. Also kittens!

Kai knew that Max didn’t want a cat when they started living together. That was something he’d decided he was willing to give up for the nights when they stayed up talking together and Sunday mornings with Max’s experimental pancake recipes and all the little things that came with Max.

He wasn’t exactly bringing a cat (or three) home. It was just long enough to get them out of the cold and make a few (unproductive) phone calls. And to feed them. And to sit with a towel full of wiggly kittens trying to think of his next move.

The front door slammed before he could decide. Kai might have panicked a little. He was still wearing his coat, and hid a kitten in each pocket before shoving all of the impromptu supplies back in the shopping bag before Max could see any of it.

“You’re home early!” Max greeted him happily. “It’s hailing _again_. I’m skipping my run for today unless you want to keep me company.” He paused long enough to take a second look at Kai. “Are you going out?”

“I’ll be back later.” Kai expected it would go unnoticed if he was a little stiff. Max didn’t resort to interrogation tactics every time he had a bad day at work.

“Be back soon.” Max waylaid him for a kiss on the cheek, so he probably assumed Kai had simply had a stressful day.

Kai was almost home free when Max hooked one finger in the handle of his bag and tried to look inside. “What’s this, anyway?”

Not his finest moment, but Kai was already on edge. He interrupted the question by grabbing Max’s shirt and pulling him into a kiss before he could get a good look.

It was an effective distraction. Max leaned into him with a satisfied noise and kissed him back, until the momentary distraction went on far longer than Kai had intended.

Max was grinning when he was finally released. “Okay, it’s a secret. Fair enough.”

If Kai had bolted out the door instead of letting Max give him one more goodbye kiss. . .

The kitten in his inside pocket, which had not held still since he’d slipped it in there, decided it was time to protest its accommodations with long, high-pitched mews.

Neither of them knew how to react to that. The look Max was giving him was priceless. Hopefully it would be worth however annoyed he was about to be.

“Do you have an animal in your coat?”

Kai had to take the kitten out. It had decided that if no one was going to rescue it from the pocket it was going to climb out itself, and he was worried it would succeed.

“Oh no, its cute!” was not the response Kai expected, nor was the automatic reach to touch the kitten.

He tentatively transferred the complaining kitten into Max’s hands, adjusting them to support it safely. Max immediately cuddled it to his chest.

“How many kittens do you have?”

Max would have to ask. The first kitten had set of its siblings in a round of unexpectedly loud meowing. Kai guided Max to sit down so he could unload the other two kittens into their laps.

For a moment Max couldn’t seem to help indulging in the high cooing voice used to address babies of all species. ‘Hi. How sweet are you? You’re so little! Just look at your little face. Ouch! Yes, you have little claws don’t you.’

Kai tucked himself against Max’s side, charmed all over again by his ridiculous boyfriend.

“You were hiding kittens from me. Meanie,” Max finally said.

“I thought you didn’t like cats.” Kai occupied himself with the kitten that wanted to climb out of Max’s lap and explore, but he could feel the look Max was giving him until he added, “You said you could definitely never have one.” He had been very emphatic, Kai remembered.

“Because my dad’s allergic. He’s allergic to pretty much everything.” Max leaned his head affectionately against Kai. “I like cats. Although I didn’t expect to catch you smuggling kittens. You must really love-”

He didn’t really expect it to work, but Kai interrupted that statement with a kiss.

There was still something in him that wanted to put up iron walls and bars every time someone saw his heart. What had been a secret was suddenly not and Max had adjusted immediately while he was still off-balance. He was still afraid to say he’d become fond of a loud, pushy stray and had been feeding her every day and had checked on her kittens to see their eyes open and their ears unfold and he was hopelessly attached and he was an idiot and he did really love them.

Max was a little breathless when Kai was done kissing him. Maybe that would give him time to change subjects.

“You’re my sweetheart,” Max told him, gently. A reminder that vulnerability would be met with kindness and affection, not punishment. Ten years since Max came into his life and Kai still forgot sometimes.

“So, what are you planning to do? Don’t tell me this is my birthday present,” Max teased.

“I’m taking them to a shelter.” Assuming he could actually find one that would take them. Or a foster. He was still reluctant to put this on Max. Not minding a cat was not the same as suddenly having three needy kittens.

The kitten Max was cuddling had decided that tucked in his arms was a nice warm place to take a nap.

“How did you find them?” Max finally asked.

There was the question Kai didn’t want to answer the most. He didn’t have the walls he’d once had to hold Max back at moments like this.

“Kai.” Max nuzzled his cheek. When Kai still didn’t respond Max carefully freed a hand to touch Kai’s chin and steer him into another kiss.

This wasn’t abrupt, but soft and slow. The movement of Max’s lips made Kai feel like he was trying to pass some unspoken word of love.

Max finally drew back, opened his eyes and gave Kai a sheepish smile. “What was I saying?”

He probably already understood the answer was one Kai didn’t want to talk about, and would only make him sad. Kai tried to project ‘thank you’ at him without a word.

“Well, I have to let you get away with it sometimes if I want you to keep doing that!”

Kai tried not to laugh and ended up with his shoulders shaking. Max leaned against him, looking so pleased with himself it only made Kai’s laugh worse.

“So if you won’t say it, I will: can we keep them?”


	8. I kiss your hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For an anon request on tumblr: kiss on the wrist/hand
> 
> This was so much fun! I can just see Max giving Kai little hand kisses so I loved writing lots of little scenes for this. (I also started writing something where Kai was an actual prince but that got outta hand. Maybe someday?)
> 
> Set at various points through season 1, plus a bit after.

“How is the entire article about Kai? Kai didn’t even do anything!”

They were trapped in an airport between an endless flight across the Pacific and an endless wait for the next leg of their journey and Tyson still had energy to complain. Kenny kept trying to hush him, afraid it would somehow start a fight.

Tyson wasn’t wrong. Kai hadn’t participated in the Asian tournament except when they had no choice. He was fine right up until Tyson expected him to react.

“Hey, Kai! Look at this! ‘Has the prince of beyblading stepped down from his throne?’”

Kai leaned back to escape the magazine. “Be glad they didn’t publish any of your glaring weaknesses.”

“Guys, calm down,” Kenny said, waving his hands weakly. He had to be as worn out as the rest of them, but still attempted to play moderator.

Max, who Kai had thought was asleep in the seat next to him, leaned across him to see the magazine.

“Oh, my prince,” Max said, suddenly grabbing Kai’s hand. “May I have the honor of a beybattle?”

Then Max kissed the back of his hand.

After hours lost to plane travel and jet lag, this was apparently hilarious. Kai yanked his hand back and folded his arms so the joke couldn’t be repeated.

Max spent the next two hours until they finally boarded their flight trying to convince Kai he was serious.

* * *

Kai was waiting for it to be quiet enough to fall asleep. He couldn’t help holding himself separate. He didn’t belong. He wondered how close they would get to the American tournament before everyone accepted that fact.

“Hey, Kai?” Max greeted, breaking him out of his thoughts. “You didn’t give me a chance to say thanks for saving me today.”

Kai shrugged. Saving Max from getting hit by a security wall was probably the one kind thing Kai would ever have a chance to do for him, so he might as well appreciate it. Not that Kai felt like he’d gone out of his way. He hadn’t wanted to see Max hurt.

“Let me see your hand. It got scraped up, right?”

“It’s nothing,” Kai said, which was the truth. He still let Max take his hand and inspect the tiny scratch near his wrist.

Max surprised him by pressing a soft kiss to the spot. “You’re my hero. I’m happy you’re here with us.”

“You expect me to believe that when you’ve been faking that smile all day?”

Kai thought he should have felt triumph to see the cheer fall away and the startled look in Max’s eyes. Instead he wanted to pull away from the discomfort he’d caused. Max was quiet for a moment, looking down at Kai’s hand still trapped in both of his.

“This might sound weird, but Dad told me if you can smile you can make yourself feel better. I’m trying to do that. Just because I’m working at it, doesn’t mean it’s not real.”

“Does that actually work?”

“Yeah. It helps. Anyway, we all have to keep moving. I can’t hold everyone back.”

Meaning the others would worry if he didn’t smile? How could they all cope without their bundle of sunshine? Max gave away too much of his energy already. “Then keep moving. You don’t have to fake anything for my sake.”

“Thanks.” Max did smile at him then. It wasn’t the enthusiastic grin he was used to. This was something tired, but sweet. “I’m not faking anything,” he said before Kai could challenge him. “That actually makes me really happy. Thanks, Kai.”

Seeing Max’s genuine smile felt nice. It made Kai uncomfortable. It was like praise when he hadn’t done anything. He didn’t like being given something he hadn’t earned.

He didn’t realize until he got up to leave that Max was still holding his hand. Max’s fingers curled loosely around his felt more natural than he ever would have believed.

* * *

Kai could feel the fine line of tension strung through the Bladebreakers. They’d said they were a team when they challenged the newly-formed Majestics, but they all knew he still didn’t fit well with the others. He told himself he didn’t care as long as he had the chance for his rematch with Johnny.

Max was fiddling with Draciel, even though he wouldn’t be taking part. If he wanted to sulk, that was his choice. Kai was going to ignore the feeling of wanting to do something to return Max’s support.

“What do you think it’s like having that much tradition wrapped up around your bitbeast? Meeting these guys makes me wish I knew more about Draciel.”

At least that distracted Tyson from getting twitchy because Kai was existing next to him. “Yeah, they all have a lot of experience because of that. And the armor might be pretty cool, too.”

Kai interrupted their conversation. “It doesn’t matter. You can only control how well you fight, not your opponent’s experience.”

“It still feels like we’re going up against beyblading royalty or something.”

Max looked up from Draciel. The uncomfortable shadow of a smile that had been annoying Kai faded. “Yeah. But Kai’s still the only prince for me!”

Kai saw it coming, but Max still snagged his hand and kissed it.

“That joke is so old!” Tyson laughed, but it swept the last of the tension away.

The next smile Max turned on him was bright and easy, just what Kai wanted to see.

* * *

Max was forcing smiles again. Kai thought he could be forgiven for not wanting to smile after losing Draciel. He’d already recovered to the point where he could be as determined and energetic as ever for the Majestics, and for his own team. Now that they were finally getting a ride back to the hotel he should be allowed to rest.

Kai couldn’t say why he thought sitting next to Max would help. Max was keeping up a pretense for them, after all.

Maybe Max remembered Kai saying he didn’t have to fake anything. He relaxed when Kai took the seat next to him, enough to show the shadows of exhaustion and hurt.

“Hey, Kai?”

Kai didn’t want to answer, but for once he thought it might be worse if he was silent. “You don’t have to do anything.”

“Okay.” Max was quiet for a moment and then asked, “Can I have your hand?”

Kai knew exactly what was coming, but held out his hand anyway.

Max slipped his hand under Kai’s to support it and then bent to touch a soft kiss to Kai’s knuckles.

“Oliver told me I was doing it wrong. I wanted to get it right,” Max confessed as he straightened up.

“You still think that’s funny.”

“It still makes me happy.”

Kai didn’t have a response for that. Max had been through a lot in the last few days, and there was no promise that the next few would be kind. He wanted Max to have a chance to rest for a little while, but was it better to let Max put energy into playing around like this? If it made him feel better, Kai wouldn’t fight it.

“Have you ever tried it?”

“Hm?”

“You know, smiling. I don’t mean that you never do, I’ve seen you, but maybe like. . .” Max made a meaningless gesture, seeming to indicate the space between them. “You’ve been through a lot in the past few days, and tomorrow’s going to be hard too, and we’re not going to get much time to rest. It would be nice if you had a chance to relax and feel good.”

Kai didn’t try to smile, but he let out a harsh ‘heh’ of laughter before he could help it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Max squeezed Kai’s hand, his way of getting the last word.

It didn’t take long for Max to doze off next to him. He slumped against Kai’s side in his sleep, and Kai let him stay there. He simply listened to the sound of slow, even breaths in the quiet.

In the dark, when not even Max could see, Kai tried to smile. At that moment he found he didn’t have to force himself at all.

* * *

After their final battle in Russia, the team split. Kai needed time away from beyblading and even away from those he had come to consider his friends.

He chose to believe his thoughts only turned down a dangerous path because a magazine cover caught his eye. It was a dramatic picture of the four of them declaring, ‘Bladebreakers Triumph!’ In the list of articles Kai noticed, ‘The Prince has Lost his Crown: The unexpected retirement of Kai Hiwatari.’

It had to be the same author. There was no way more than one person would find that stupid joke funny.

Kai was ready to ignore it, except for some reason it reminded him of other things. Max playfully kissing his hand. Max holding his hand. Max’s sleeping head resting against his shoulder.

‘May I have the honor of a beybattle?’

Funny how Max had hung on to his little joke all that time. Funny how Kai caught himself thinking of it as an affectionate gesture instead. Funny how hard it was to get out of his head.

Thinking of Max made him want to see Max again. He thought that was probably inevitable.

It might have been better to call ahead rather than to surprise Max at some minor tournament. Max spotted him from the opposite side of the stadium, somehow got through a crowd of a couple thousand people, and chased him across a parking lot just to throw himself at Kai in a hug.

“I knew it was you! I missed you! You should have signed up and given me a challenge!”

Max hugged him, quick and fierce, then let him go. Kai braced his hands on Max’s shoulders to keep him back a step.

“Too much? Sorry about that. Did you come for a battle?”

Max was definitely too much, but in a way that Kai had loved and missed. Seeing Max again killed all the excuses he’d used to camouflage how he felt. It was a blessing the team was broken up now. That meant he couldn’t break it. In a way he could think of Max as already gone before he confessed.

“No,” Kai said, and then, “I like you.”

“I like you too!” Max answered. Of course he misunderstood. He’d been hoping for Kai to declare them friends for so long.

Kai took his hands away. He managed a rueful smile at himself. Might as well go all the way and make it clear. “No, I’m in love with you.”

For some reason the joyful grin didn’t fade.

“It’s okay, Kai. I’ve been flirting with you for months!”

Max tried to steal his hand, probably to demonstrate said flirting. Kai grabbed Max’s hand instead and lifted it to his face. He felt like too much of an idiot to actually do it with Max beaming at him like that.

Once it became clear he wasn’t getting a kiss right now, Max squeezed Kai’s hand tightly.

“You’d better not be planning to confess and then turn around and leave.”

Kai had been planning to do exactly that. Then again, he hadn’t planned on Max holding both of his hands and smiling at him like this.

“So, my prince, may I have the honor of a date?” Max suggested hopefully.

“On one condition: You’re not allowed to call me a prince anymore.”

* * *

A week after the Bladebreakers were officially back together, Max pounced on Kai with a beyblading magazine, almost cackling with glee.

‘The Kings of Blading!!’ was blazoned across the cover, over a picture of the four of them together.

“You were right! You’re not a prince anymore! So if we’re both kings then who kisses who?”

Kai prevented Max from getting at his hands by grabbing the front of Max’s shirt, then kissed Max on the mouth to put an end to the issue.

For the next few minutes Max was giggling too hard to do much beyond collapsing against Kai and peppering him with sloppily-aimed kisses. Kai didn’t even try to suppress his smile.


	9. Familiar Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suddenly wanted to write fic for Kai's birthday! This would work better if I didn't start it on his actual birthday day but you can't have everything.
> 
> And then because I was already working on a fic with familiars and my brain was in that place a magic school AU happened because I thought it would be cute. (Yet another that could be its own whole plot but I wanted to write fluff...)
> 
> (For wolbcrg if wanted.)

It was already August and much too hot to be practicing actual calcination. Kai would ignore the fact that he also had a phoenix perched on his shoulder. The heat Dranzer gave off was familiar and comforting. The fire in front of him was annoying and unpleasant, even if he wasn’t having any trouble keeping it at the right temperature.

Kai usually enjoyed how much fire was involved with alchemy. He was good at manipulating it even without his familiar’s help. That didn’t stop him from glaring grumpily at the bundle of herbs which were not being reduced to ash fast enough for his taste.

“Hey, Kai,” came a cheerful voice next to him. When he glanced over Max held a flower in front of his face. The petals were blood-red, with white veins that stood out like bone.

Kai pushed the flower away. “You’re supposed to put the dragon’s bane in your crucible, not make it bloom.”

“I just thought it suited you,” Max laughed. He started plucking the petals off and feeding them to his own familiar.

Almost everyone at the academy had inherently magical animals as their familiars, like cats and unicorns. Even if a familiar wasn’t a magical species, they were more powerful and more inclined to magic than their mundane counterparts.

Max, on the other hand, had a turtle.

Kai had a difficult time imagining Max having the soul of a turtle, or whatever the current theory for magician-familiar bonding was. Particularly not a turtle whose favorite things seemed to be sleeping and biting people who got in its personal space. Max was the absolute opposite, friendly and energetic to a fault.

“Kai likes me, he likes me not,” Max said to himself with each petal, quietly enough that Kai was probably the only one who could hear, though there were too many sharp-eared familiars around them for comfort.

“Shut up.”

Max stopped. He was already on the last petal anyway, which happened to be, ‘Kai likes me.’

The problem was that Kai actually did like him. He had no idea how Max had figured that out, but he must have realized somehow because he kept doing things like this to tease Kai.

“So you don’t like flowers,” Max said as he shredded the dragon’s bane into his crucible and balanced it over the flames like a good student. “You don’t like candy. You hate jewelry. What do you like?”

“Peace and quiet.”

“I’m serious, Kai. What’s your favorite thing?”

“Dranzer,” Kai answered. Powerful talons squeezed his shoulder and his familiar chirped happily in his ear, sounding more like a songbird than a phoenix.

“I should have seen that coming,” Max laughed. After that he left Kai alone except for the occasional humming as he worked.

There were times when Kai was frustrated by the lack of research into indifference potions, or something to make one fall _out_ of love. It wouldn’t be such a problem if fate hadn’t arbitrarily decided he share one of the four-person rooms with Max, which meant they couldn’t get away from each other even if they wanted to.

Then again there were times like when Max sat beside him at dinner and his excited voice became white noise and his presence was like a warm shield on one side and having a crush felt almost nice.

Max didn’t bother him that evening. Instead, he made a messy nest of books and papers with Tyson as the two of them tried to get through last minute homework. Kai did his own work outside so Dranzer could stretch her wings, using one of her shed feathers as a light once the sun went down.

By now Kai knew just how long they needed to stay out before his roommates would be asleep. He got ready for bed by the soft glow Dranzer gave off, curled up on top of the covers, and tried to go to sleep.

It was a hot summer night, and sleep didn’t come easily. Kai’s brain did not want to shut up about practical exams and the extra hours of alchemy practice he’d been avoiding and Tala trying to recruit him to his dueling team and god he hated exams he always got marked down because he didn’t put out the fires fast enough but Tyson blew the ceiling off one of the exam rooms and only lost five points for it.

Kai was abruptly knocked out of his mental loop when a pillow hit him. He sat up and threw it back at Max, who was in the top bunk opposite him.

Max was smiling. He pointed to Kai, to himself, then to the door.

Kai lay back down and attempted to ignore Max until he felt someone poke his bare foot. He looked down to find Max on the ladder up to his bunk.

“I want to show you something,” Max whispered.

“It’s the middle of the night.”

“I know. You can’t see it during the day. Come with me?”

Kai almost said he was trying to sleep, but that obviously wasn’t working out for him.

Dranzer was awake too. She was bored and wanted to stretch her wings, and she had a bad habit of reenforcing Kai’s fondness for Max.

Kai ended up following Max down that ladder. Driger opened one eye when they passed, but seemed to decide they weren’t doing anything worth reacting to.

As soon as they were outside Dranzer launched herself from Kai’s shoulder and for an instant he felt the rush of flight secondhand. He wondered if she felt the surprising rush that went through him when Max grabbed his hand.

Max led him right up to the barrier that surrounded the academy. Even in the dark they could see the shimmer in the air, like the film of a soap bubble, slightly distorting their view of the world beyond.

Max set Draciel on the ground and pushed Kai to step back. “Okay, Draciel. Grow up a little.”

It only took a few seconds for Kai to see why Max was pushing him back. Draciel grew rapidly from a turtle small enough to rest on Max’s head into something monstrously large. When Draciel reared back on her hind legs she was easily two stories tall, and when she stuck one foreleg through the shimmering wall in front of them the barrier parted like a curtain being drawn back.

Max led Kai through the gap. Dranzer dove after them, and then they turned to watch Draciel move through it, magic running down her shell as harmlessly as water.

“Do you have a shrinking charm on Draciel all the time?” Kai asked as Max touched his familiar’s leg, apparently to indicate they wanted to climb up on top of Draciel’s shell.

“No, Draciel doesn’t like being big unless she has to be, since she doesn’t fit inside.”

Dranzer was poking Kai with thoughts about Max and dueling. She could get bigger when he poured extra magic into her, but not this big and not this effortlessly.

Draciel was so large it didn’t matter if she was slow. Each swinging step covered so much ground Kai would have had to run to keep up. They were moving uphill. Kai assumed they were going to climb one of the mountains surrounding the academy, but they stopped in the first clearing large enough for Draciel to settle down comfortably.

“Look up,” Max said.

There was no moon tonight. Only an endless sea of stars, bright and perfectly clear above them.

A shooting star streaked by, a line of white fire in the dark sky. After a few seconds there was another, and another. Each seemed to come closer on the tail of the one before until Kai lost count as the meteor shower began in earnest.

After several minutes staring at the sky Max said, so softly Kai could have ignored him if he chose, “When I found out this would happen on your birthday, I wanted you to see it. Plus I couldn’t figure out what else to get you.”

Kai had enough tact not to mention that it was past midnight. He knew he should thank Max, or attempt to translate how happy Dranzer was watching the arcs of dying fire in the sky. They never could have seen this from the school grounds.

“You’re still holding my hand,” he ended up saying. Max had helped him up on Draciel’s back and just never let go.

“I guess I am.”

Kai didn’t look over at Max. He didn’t think Max looked over at him. If they both looked at the sky maybe Max’s hand in his wouldn’t mean anything. Or at least it wouldn’t mean enough that they had to let go.

“You didn’t ask me to let go,” Max said after a long silence.

“I guess I didn’t.”

Dranzer’s happiness was like a sleepy purr in the back of his mind and Draciel made a contented rumble that he felt through his bones. Kai silently laced his fingers together with Max’s while above them the stars fell.


	10. Guardian Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max is a ghost who shows up one day claiming to be Kai's guardian angel, and he doesn't seem to be disappearing any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ten assorted ficlets! Whoo! I hope everyone has been enjoying them!
> 
> This is just an AU I've been toying with on and off, with angel!Max trying to help Kai. It might do well with more time and gradual build, but for now I only had this one scene in mind, as usual.

“He was nice. Are you going to play with him again?”

Kai lifted his head just enough to give Max a withering look, which was completely wasted on him. Max was up on his toes to see out the narrow window, squinting against the late afternoon sun to watch Kai’s latest opponent leave. ‘Play,’ he said. Kai had stopped treating beyblading like a game a long time ago and Max was naive if he thought otherwise.

“He was annoying.”

“He was fun! I wish I could have said ‘hi’ to him.”

“Go haunt him, then.”

Max looked ordinary enough, but if Kai took a second look he could see Max’s toes were actually floating a few inches off the floor as he pulled himself up to see out of the part of the window that wasn’t boarded up. He didn’t cast a shadow in the slanting light. And, of course, Kai’s opponent hadn’t seen him at all.

“I can’t abandon you,” Max protested, instead of bringing up the obvious problem that Kai was apparently the only person who could see or hear him.

The real problem with this situation was that for some reason Max thought he was Kai’s guardian angel. He had introduced himself as such a week ago and hadn’t left Kai alone since. Max hadn’t said much about himself beyond the guardian angel claim. He couldn’t even give an adequate explanation of why Kai supposedly needed an angel in the first place.

Kai could believe Max was kind of ghost. When asked how he had died Max had protested that it was a really personal question, but he hadn’t denied that he had died at some point. Kai hadn’t bothered asking him much else since then. He was trying to keep his distance until Max got bored.

For a ghost, Max was more coherent and more human than Kai would have expected. There were no cryptic demands in the form of bleeding walls and slamming doors. Instead he was energetic and cheerful, not to mention being annoyingly straightforward when he spoke his mind. His only angelic-seeming quality was that sometimes there was a soft halo of light around him, only visible in the dark. Maybe all ghosts had that. Kai certainly hadn’t met any others.

The strangest thing about Max was probably that he would get angry on Kai’s behalf, or waste his time trying to be supportive. He had made it his mission to encourage Kai to take better care of himself daily, and nothing seemed to put him off.

“Oh, Kai! Your cat is back!” Max called, still peering out the window.

“She’s not mine. She’s a stray,” Kai told him. The cat in question was one he had fed and looked after when she needed it. He had made a token effort to find her a home, but she had apparently decided she didn’t like anyone but him.

While he knew she was now able to provide for herself he still sometimes saved scraps for her. He wasn’t sure if she came for the food or if he was just telling himself she was. She wasn’t a lap cat, but still chose to seek out his company for a short time.

Since Max had appeared she took a moment out of each visit to stare, circle, and sniff at him. At least animals could see Max. That was the main thing that told Kai he was a ghost and not a hallucination.

The cat delicately put a paw through Max’s foot, lifted it with what Kai could swear was an expression of feline skepticism, then tried again. When Max continued to be intangible she retreated and groomed her paw, tail-tip twitching as if this was a personal insult.

“Sorry kitty-cat. I wish I could pet you,” Max said. One of her ears cocked towards him.

“She wouldn’t let you.”

With that necessary bit of grooming done she circled him one last time, rubbing her face on Kai’s knees in the silent proclamation of ‘my human,’ before leaving again on some errand of her own.

Kai was left sitting across from Max, who gave him one of his sunny smiles.

“What do you want to do now?”

Kai didn’t want to do anything. He hadn’t for a while. He hadn’t completely realized how constant that feeling was until Max showed up, and couldn’t help feeling annoyed at the company of someone who always seemed to want to be doing something.

“Why don’t you go explore?” Kai suggested. Max liked people-watching, even if no one could see him. He knew more about the activity around them than Kai did, but that wasn’t saying much. Kai was more familiar with the local feral cat colony than his neighbors.

“Without you? That’s no fun.”

“It’s not my fault you don’t have any friends.” Kai felt a twinge of guilt as soon as he said it, and he wasn’t in the habit of letting himself feel guilty. Max was stuck with him, even more so than the other way around, unless he could find someone else who could see him.

“It’s not my fault you don’t have any friends, either,” Max shot back at him.

There was a short, mutually offended, silence before Max sighed and tried again.

“There’s some interesting boxes upstairs.”

“What’s so interesting about them?”

“There could be anything in them. I can’t open them.”

Kai didn’t actually know much about what had been stored in or shipped through this warehouse by his family. He only knew it wasn’t in use right now, nor would it be in the immediate future, and it was closer to where he was supposed to be. Bad enough if he was going to be called upon to compete. He didn’t want to be shuttled back and forth.

“You could open them,” Max added hopefully, when Kai didn’t volunteer.

“I doubt there’s anything interesting.” But it wasn’t as if he had anything better to do. Maybe it would serve as a distraction for both of them, and Max would stop bothering him for a while.

The ‘upstairs’ wasn’t a complete floor, but a series of catwalks and a large platform at either end. The catwalks were in bad shape. They swayed and creaked threateningly when he walked on them. Kai moved slowly, glad that Max’s weight didn’t seem to register on the floor.

He didn’t even reach the pile of boxes Max was so interested in. Halfway there, his foot went right through the boards. Max grabbed his hand and for a moment the world froze. Max was intangible, bound by floors and walls seemingly by habit alone. Kai had just assumed Max couldn’t touch him, and he hadn’t wanted to find out.

Maybe Kai could have grabbed onto something in the endless second between his foot going through and the rest of the floor opening under him, but he was too shocked to move.

Max might be able to touch him, but he couldn’t hold Kai up. Instead Kai’s weight pulled Max down with him. His inevitable collision with the floor momentarily stunned him, and he could only throw one arm over his head against the shower of dirt and splinters.

When Kai opened his eyes again Max was still holding his hand.

Max’s arm passed right through a broken scrap of wood, his body emitting a soft glow in the low light and fog of dust, and his hand resting on Kai’s felt for all the world like a human hand.

“Let go!”

“Sorry.” Max withdrew the offending hand. “I didn’t realize you were so heavy!”

Kai dragged himself up, trying to assess any injuries. He had been lucky. It didn’t feel like he had hit as hard as he could have. He didn’t think he had anything worse than bruises and scrapes. Probably a black eye and a definitely a split lip from smacking his face on his way down. Now if only he could stop shaking.

He shouldn’t be unsettled just because Max could touch him. He had just assumed he couldn’t. How was it any worse than having a ghost there in the first place? Why did having an invisible, intangible boy being able to reach out and touch him make him shudder under his skin?

When he looked over at Max, Kai could read the worry in the other boy’s face. He had both hands up as if he might like to support Kai, but thankfully he was holding back.

Max still wasn’t a ghost that belonged in any horror story. Kai might have gotten a jolt just now, but looking at Max he found it was difficult to actually be afraid of him.

“Are you okay? Can I help?”

“Do whatever you want. I don’t care.” Kai didn’t expect him to do anything. He turned to limp back to his usual corner and recover.

Max crashed into his back and wrapped arms around his chest from behind. Before Kai could pry him off there were a pair of feathery wings wrapped around him as well.

Being touched by Max wasn’t such a shock the second time. It felt like being wrapped in sunlight. The warmth eased the ache of fresh bruises and made it easier to breathe. Kai brushed his fingertips over Max’s feathers and found them warm and fluffy. Of course, he couldn’t imagine Max having wings that were any other way.

“You’re actually an angel?”

“I told you so.”

Max opened his wings and released Kai. When Kai turned around he was grinning, far too proud of himself. He was still holding his wings half open, so that they framed him dramatically. He was nothing like any angel Kai would have imagined, too human and too beautiful for stained glass.

“You could have showed me.”

“I guess, but they’re kind of awkward.” Max folded his wings down. He rolled his shoulders uncomfortably as he continued, “Anyway, you didn’t tell me I had to prove it. I figured it was fine even if you didn’t believe me.” The sound of rustling feathers echoed strangely, like thin whispers telling him to hush. Kai could swear he still felt the warmth radiating from them pressed against his skin.

“So why do you have to show me now?”

“I wanted to heal you a little. Did it help?” Max’s smile so bright that Kai didn’t know how to deal with it. “I missed some, though. I think I can heal them if I, well. . .” he tapped one finger against his mouth, giving Kai a surprisingly hesitant smile.

Kai gave a slight nod in answer. Max didn’t unfurl his wings again, but leaned close enough to touch a light kiss to his swollen eyelid.

“Better?”

Kai found his bruised eye didn’t feel quite so tender. He reached up to touch it in disbelief. Max actually being an angel was disorienting enough without the ability to take a bruise and literally ‘kiss it better.’

Max hesitated and Kai poked at his split lip with his tongue, sure both of them were thinking the same thing. He leaned away from Max. He didn’t think he could handle Max kissing him on the mouth on top of everything.

Instead, Max kissed his finger and touched delicately below Kai’s lip. It didn’t heal anything, but Max laughed and that broke the tension.

“I think that’s all I can do right now.”

The glow from Max’s wings was fading. Feathers dispersed like fireflies and winked out one by one. Kai was surprised at his own relief when it was just Max standing before him again. He had apparently gotten so used to his meddling ghost that he didn’t want Max to change. Realizing that annoyed him.

“Why are you here?” Kai demanded.

“Maybe because you needed someone? No one told me why I was being sent to you.”

“Maybe you’re in the wrong place.”

“I like to think it’s fate. Like if I hadn’t gone and gotten myself killed I would’ve met you someday, and I know I would’ve wanted to be your friend.”

“I doubt it.”

Max laughed. “I would! I probably would have thought you were so cool. I would have kept challenging you until I got your attention.”

“It wouldn’t work.”

“Oh really? But I know there’s someone out there who’s going to get your attention soon. You’ll find your momentum again.”

“And then what? Your work here will be done?”

If he thought about it he wasn’t sure he wanted Max to just disappear. There were very few people in his life he could say that about, and all of them were already gone. Or dead.

“I don’t actually know how it works. I wouldn’t want you to be depressed or alone just so you need _me_ , you know? But since we’re friends it would be awful to just leave you.”

“We’re not friends.”

“Even if you say that you need someone who’s on your side, so I’m going to stick around.”

Kai grunted instead of giving Max a full reply. When he looked up, however, Max was beaming at him. Max didn’t need any wings or supernatural glow when his face lit up like that.

“I guess I can’t stop you.” Kai answered. Whatever Max thought he was, angel or ghost or Kai’s only friend, Kai was willing to keep him around for now.


End file.
